To the Editor of The Inter Ocean.
Chicago, Dec. 30.—Not having heard the paper read by Dr. Sarah H. Stevenson before the Philosophical Society, on "Mind Cure, " I have, in replying to certain statements of hers on that occasion, to assume the newspaper reports of the same to be correct. According to them, she did not go into the merits of the question, but simply ridiculed the exponents of the faith and their literature. Ridicule and sarcasm prove nothing, and when employed as weapons of defence but reveal the lack of ability to attack successfully. To raise a laugh at the expense of others who differ with us, is in the power of any one who chooses to employ the means; but to prove them to be in the wrong, by a fair, candid, logical argument, is quite another matter, and has not yet been done by any critic of the "Mind Cure," chiefly because those who attempt it do not understand what they are talking about. One account states that "in criticism of their theory that their power as healers came from Christ, she took positive grounds against such doctrine, and argued that their very literature denied their pretence: and, furthermore, that any such claim was sacrilegious." I would refer Dr. Stevenson to the fourteenth chapter of St. John, twelfth verse: "He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father." And to the tenth chapter of St. Luke, where Jesus sent out seventy disciples to preach and to heal, saying to them, "He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me."
"And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord! even the devils are subject unto us in Thy name."
